A Village Gala Day, c.1950 - Sepia Saturday

This is a picture of the junior dancers at Staining Gala around 1950, and I am the little girl kneeling on the left of the front row. .

I lived near Blackpool, Lancashire and all the surrounding villages had the their annual gala day, when the local band led the Rose Queen in procession with her maids of honour and retinue to a field where she was crowned Queen by some local worthy, followed by dancing displays games, stalls, craft competitions, refreshment tents - and sports.

These dresses were in apple green satin with silver cardboard headdresses and I remember other years wearing peach satin and yellow taffeta. For me, the dress was always destined to be my party dress for the year. I always wanted to be one of the bigger girls who danced with garlands. The worst aspect was the torture the night before of having my hair put into rags, in the hope I would end up with ringlets the next day.

After the dancing, a quick change into shorts for the races. The egg & spoon and bean bag and potato races were for the "little ones". More energetic versions were leapfrog races, sack races, wheelbarrow races and three legged races. Do these still take place, or, as I suspect, have they fallen foul of the current "health and safety" regime? I certainly remember plenty of thrills and spills. The climax of the day was a tug of war competition for the boys and men - and afterwards a weary walk home.

Looking back, this was not long after the war, with people still having to put up with rationing, but the gala days were a great tribute to community efforts, and my mother, as the local dressmaker, was heavily involved in making the dresses, headdresses and crepe paper flowers.

13 comments:

What lovely memories. The taffeta dresses were very pretty. Your mother must have been talented at the sewing machine. I too have fond memories of picnics with those great rough and tumble games, but I don't think I ever saw a real, live tug-o-war. I suppose they do it electronically now!

I remember these village galas and fetes from the 1950s well. I suppose they still take place to some extent, especially in more rural areas. But villages close to larger towns and cities - like the ones both you and I grew up in - seem to have been drawn in to the urban areas they surround and lost some of their individuality.

These are great pictures and I get that you wished to be one of those dancing with garlands. In the first pic, something got your attention, like one of the girls in the back row... Do you remember what it was?;)~ HUGZ

About Me

I have been interested in family history for years. It all began when I was allowed as a child to look through the old family photographs and memorabilia kept in a shoebox in the cupboard at my grandfather's house. That treat started me on a fascinating ancestral trail.